I don't mind the explanation but, it's gonna be on the long side...just addressing the basics.
You want the primer to be fully cured/hardened before you begin applying the paint. That can take anywhere from a few hours to a week. I suspect that your airdry/rattlecan paint will be on the shorter end of things, especially in high ambient air temps. If in doubt, give it 3-4 days, see if it smells like paint when you do the final block sanding. The primer should be flat and free of orange peel. Ideally, you lay it on wet enough to flow-out smoothly. Some primers are easy to flow-out, others are almost impossible...a choice between rough surface finish and runs. Final block sanding should be done with 500-600 grit, wet. Anything coarser will leave visible scratches.
Post-sanding, the frame must be dry & dust-free. A good scrubbing with a clean, wet, terrycloth towel should make quick work of the sanding dust. A final sweep, using a tack cloth, just before applying the silver base is ideal.
The silver is applied in thin coats, until you have a uniform application, no thin spots. Likewise, the color goes on in thin, evenly-applied, coats until the desired saturation value is developed. You need really good lighting for this. Work slowly and learn how to apply an even coat. That usually means a 50% overlap pattern, to avoid the old, dreaded, tiger-striping. This is the part of the job that requires flawless application technique. Candy midcoat colors are usually watery-thin and very easy to run. At the same time, you want the paint applied wet enough to flow-out. If it goes on too dry, you'll get orange peel and the finished color will have a mottled appearance. Generally speaking, candy midcoats tend to look dull & lifeless and they're so thin that orange peel is a non-issue.
The clearcoat is where you'll start to see what the final result will look like. Start with a light "scratch coat". This is to seal the color and give the subsequent coats of clear something to grab onto. The second coat (and subsequent coats) of clear should be a full, wet, coat. This is where you want complete flowout. Ideally, you want to take each coat the edge of running, stopping just short of that. With rattlecans, paint mixture, vehicle (solvent) voltatility and spray pattern are all fixed, beyond your control; so, choose your sprayout day based on ambient temp & humidity, for best results. Rattlecans dispense a very small amount amount of material and produce a narrow fan...slow going but just what the inexperienced painter needs. Trading speed of application for control is a good bargain. You want to apply enough clearcoat to allow color sanding & buffing. Sanding thins the paint. Dunno the specifics of this paint system. Might take 3-5 coats of clear to get sufficient thickness to allow heavy color sanding & buffing, without digging into the color. Airdry formula paint is usually on the soft side, easy to sand, using 1500-2500 grit and easy to buff. If you're not up-to-speed with a rotary buffer, use a fine machine compound - by hand. It's slow-going but, you're only doing one bike. One afternoon and aching shoulders is a small enough price for what should be an outstanding result.
As for time between coats, tack-free time, working time, and full curing/hardness/outgassing, you'll have to refer to the manufacturers instruction sheet...and then use your own best judgment. Some airdry formula paints will wrinkle if you get the timing wrong. Most have a time window of an hour, or so; after that, you may have to wait days, or weeks to apply more coats. You should be able to work through a 7 - 9 piece CT70 frameset in 20-30 minutes, tops...that's per coat. Plan on a long sprayout session. Red is usually one of the quicker and more forgiving colors, which means somewhere around 3-4 hours from the first coat of metallic basecoat to the final application of clear. That's as quick as it gets with candies; the really tough ones take up to six hours in the booth.
once you see clean, "white" metal, move on...perfectly prepared surface. But seriously, you'd have to hold the stream in one place for a long time to remove any significant amount of solid metal. You'd be bored to death before that could happen. Effective & safe, what's not to like?
